My heart sinks every time the police demand yet more powers for "anti-terrorism" (Police demand new stop and search powers, 30 December). Such new powers will allow the police to repeat the same mistakes as the previous Labour government, with its liberty-reducing powers that were useless, as well as counterproductive. The police wasted huge amounts of their time and our money stopping tens of thousands of people for no good reason, and with little proven result apart from annoying a large section of our multiracial society.

New anti-terrorism powers, combined with budget cuts, will lead to overstretched police being distracted from their primary task, which is dealing with the everyday crimes that people want solved. Better intelligence is what can help the police subvert criminals and terrorists, and that is achieved by better community relations, not by alienating ethnic minorities yet again.

• In seeking to replace the now unlawful section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the police argue that stop and search powers would be lawful if their use were restricted to specific times, geographical areas or events. This is debatable. Before any move is considered, a review of powers under section 60 of Criminal Justice Act 1994 should be held. Similar to the abuse of section 44 condemned by the European court of human rights, police in some cities have continuously authorised section 60 stop and search in areas of predominantly black and minority ethnic population. Analysis has shown that black people are over 26 times, and Asians three times, more likely to be stopped and searched under these powers than white people. At a minimum, parliament should consider imposing a requirement for national recording and monitoring of section 60 authorisations when it is shortly asked to approve revisions to the codes of practice.